The Kymera Wand is a device that you can program to replace the remote control used by your TV, DVD player or Hi-Fi etc.

Use a gesture of the wand to send an infra-red signal to your device. It uses a 3-axis accelerometer to detect motion and can remember up to 13 gestures which are each related to a specific infra-red command.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn more in an article at

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305699/Dragons-Den-panels-bidding-war-Magic-Wand-replace-remote-control.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

and visit the web-site at

http://www.thewandcompany.com/

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10687701

After entering your measurements, the mannequin takes the shape and size of your body. You can let the mannequin try different sized clothing and choose the one that fits you best.

You can try out a demonstration on the fits.me website but in this case, the robot is not performing in real-time. Instead, fits.me puts a small-sized shirt on the robot, and then runs a program where the mannequin shape-shifts into roughly 2,000 different body types, capturing an image for each one. The process is repeated with all the different shirt sizes and the result is a database of images for every shirt, and every size, that can be called up when you input your dimensions online.

http://www.fits.me/

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Eh ?

Meta Cookie is the world’s first pseudo-gustation system which induces cross-modal effect to let humans perceive various tastes without changing chemical substances by changing only visual and olfactory information. The system evokes cross-modal effect among vision, olfaction and gustation.

What ?

The system allows users to feel that they are eating a flavored cookie even though they are eating a plain cookie with an AR marker.

Ah, I see (I think).

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The cylindrical unit measures 13cm in diameter and 27cm in height. It can be connected to a PC, or other device, through a digital video input port. No special glasses are needed to see the 3D image.

The display is also equipped with a gesture sensor that enables the display to be controlled interactively using hand motions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=135609

Earlier work in this area includes Lucid Touch, by Patrick Baudisch http://www.kf12.com/blogs/techno/2008/01/lucid-touch/, and the Grippity Keyboard http://www.kf12.com/blogs/techno/2009/01/grippity-keyboard/ and http://www.grippity.com/

In RearType, a standard keyboard layout is split and rotated so that hands gripping the device have the usual keys under the fingers. This allows for 10-finger, tactile, touch-typing which may be better and quicker than using an on-screen keyboard for touch devices.

The paper “RearType: Text Entry Using Keys on the Back of a Device” will be presented at Mobile HCI 2010 ( http://mobilehci2010.di.fc.ul.pt/ )

James Scott and Shahram Izadi from Microsoft Research

Leila Sadat Rezai RWTH Aachen, Germany

Dominika Ruszkowski, Xiaojun Bi and Ravin Balakrishnan from the Dept. of Computer Science,
University of Toronto, Canada

An annual showcase “Research in Action” describes Research work from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. This project was described during the last event held in November 2009.

http://web.cs.toronto.edu/research/ria.htm

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http://tangible.media.mit.edu/person.php?recid=81

The full title of the project is Beyond  - A collapsible Input device for Direct 3D Manipulation beyond the Screen.

http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project.php?recid=139

It explores a technique for drawing in 3D on a 2D surface using an input device which collapses onto itself,  giving the impression of being pushed into the screen – watch the enclosed video to get a better idea of what’s happening.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It will be interesting to see whether this technique will be of any use in 3D CAD software. Towards the end of the video ( 1:41 ) is a demonstration of how to create simple extruded shapes.

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There are blocks for almost everything you can do on an Android phone as well as specific blocks for doing “programming stuff”.

Watch it in action in the following 60 second video showing an application being made.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The blocks editor uses the Open Blocks Java library ¹ for creating visual blocks programming languages. Open Blocks is distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Scheller Teacher Education Program and derives from thesis research ² by Ricarose Roque. We thank Eric Klopfer and Daniel Wendel of the Scheller Program for making Open Blocks available and for their help in working with it. Open Blocks visual programming is closely related to the Scratch programming language ³, a project of the MIT Media Laboratory’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group.

To find out more about App Inventor go to

http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/index.html

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A video preview of Technical Papers to be presented is available

Click here to view the embedded video.

with some more details at

http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/for_attendees/technical_papers

Emerging Technologies presents interactive demonstrations of technologies applied to a wide range of applications.

Here’s a trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Find more information on the contributions at

http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/for_attendees/emerging_technologies

and the SIGGRAPH 2010 home page at

http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/

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Manufacturers are making more sophisticated TVs which you can simply connect to your home network to provide access to the internet. The TV will help to accelerate the growth of the internet as a platform and easy access to the cloud of information available.

Project Canvas is a partnership, in the UK,  between a number of companies – BBC, ITV, C4, Five, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva to build an open internet-connected TV platform.  While the main aim is to explore the future of broadcast and online TV, another objective is to make access to web content and services simpler. For example, providing access to public information web services such as NHS Direct and other Government services, via a simple, common user interface.

Currently in the initial development stages, the three main elements to the venture are:

• To set the standard(s)
• Build the technical platform
• Create the User Experience

It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next year or two. While broadband may be more widespread and consumers are getting more familiar with services such as video-on-demand, will the overall existing network infrastructure be sufficient to meet the demands ? We are already starting to see unlimited data downloads provided by ISPs starting to become subject to “(un)fair usage” policies due to existing demands on their services. And what is this current myth about broadband getting faster? You can only imagine the effects on the service with the expected increased demand provided by access from the TV.

Details of the project are available at:

http://www.projectcanvas.info/

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The Kin is a new Windows phone from Microsoft designed to broadcast and navigate your social life and is aimed at the Social Generation who want to share their journey (through life) every day with their network of friends.

http://www.kf12.com/blogs/techno/2010/04/kin/
and now ?

Microsoft recently announced that the Kin will not be launched in Europe – effectively that the project has been cancelled – and the team have moved on to the Windows Phone 7 team.

The official line states:

Microsoft has made the decision to focus on the Windows Phone 7 launch and will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.

Some rumours suggest only a few thousand phones have been sold to date since it’s release, although at a price plan of around $30 per month this wouldn’t have helped sales.

Still, it may be that some features of the Kin could arise again in Windows Phone 7 … time will tell…

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